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Morning Briefing: 10 Things You Should Know

NEW YORK (
TheStreet) -- Here are 10 things you should know for Monday, July 22:

1. -- U.S. stock futures were pointing to gains on Wall Street Monday and Japanese markets rose after the country's ruling government regained control of parliament's upper house, giving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe a mandate to push economic reforms forward.

European stocks were trading higher. Japan's Nikkei 225 index rose 0.5% to finish at 14,658.04 and other Asian markets ended with gains.

2. -- The
economic calendar in the U.S. Monday includes existing-home sales for June at 10 a.m. EDT.

The
Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped slightly Friday to close at 15,543.74; the blue-chip index gained 0.51% for the week. The technology-heavy
Nasdaq fell 0.7% on Friday to 3,587.61.

4. --
Apple(AAPL - Get Report) and its Asian suppliers are testing larger screens for
iPhones and tablets, officials at the company's suppliers told
The Wall Street Journal.

Apple has asked in recent months for prototype smartphone screens larger than 4 inches and has also asked for screen designs for a new tablet device measuring slightly less than 13 inches diagonally, the officials told the newspaper. The current iPhone 5 screen is 4 inches; the iPad has a 9.7-inch screen.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment for the
Journal.

Whether either design will make their way to market is unclear, the
Journal noted, since Apple routinely tests different designs for its products.

5. --
McDonald's(MCD - Get Report), the giant hamburger chain, is forecast by Wall Street to report on Monday second-quarter earnings of $1.40 a share on revenue of $7.09 billion.

6. --
Netflix(NFLX - Get Report), the streaming video service, is expected to report profit of 40 cents a share in the second quarter on revenue of $1.07 billion.

Netflix earned $6.2 million, or 11 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter on revenue of $889 million.

7. -- Chipmaker
Texas Instruments(TXN - Get Report) is expected by analysts on Monday to report second-quarter earnings of 41 cents a share on revenue of $3.06 billion.